A previous column based upon William Patterson’s petition to the United Nations regarding genocide resonated with a lot of readers. It made its rounds across cyberspace with a lot of thoughtful discussion. The responses and continued reports coming from hurricane victims and relief workers down South motivated me to go to the source, Patterson’s book We Charge Genocide.
The book contains the powerful treatise delivered to the U.N. with a preface by Ossie Davis. The petitioners came from all walks of life and included such notables as Dr. W.E.B. Dubois, Mary Church Terrell and Paul Robeson. The petition doesn’t just talk about the physical genocide of black people in a vacuum, but links it to economics, mental harm, the right to vote and the general denial of our participation as full citizens. The petition goes on to meticulously detail acts of genocide against black people from 1945-1951 as documentation of Genocide Convention violations.
When we look at New Orleans, we see a city teeming with poverty and all the ugliness that goes with it – disenfranchisement, illiteracy, unemployment, etc. When we look at the evacuation plan and the post-Hurricane Katrina relief effort, a sober and sane person cannot discount the role of race and class in the mix. That doesn’t include the 63 percent in the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll who said those persons responsible for handling the Katrina disaster should not be fired. They obviously felt that the inhumane response to the thousands of black and poor hurricane victims was appropriate.
A courageous group of women don’t want a repeat of Katrina here in St. Louis and are doing something about it. They held a meeting to review and discuss disaster plans for the region. The group calling itself Citizens for Equality in Rescue and Protection wants to ensure that the most vulnerable sectors of our area are taken into account. These are the poor, the elderly and the sick. Judging by the St. Louis region’s demographics, our numbers don’t look much better than those of New Orleans. The citizens group is encouraging community participation in a summit to address disaster preparedness.
This is an important effort that we should support and participate in. We must also continue to address the conditions surrounding a natural disaster that result in a man-made disaster. Three weeks out and there is still no coordinated relief down South. Thousands of families have been separated and dispersed to the four winds. The cost of human suffering and trauma are incalculable.
In his preface to We Charge Genocide, Ossie Davis leaves us to ponder the questions: “Will America reorder her priorities, or will she grow meaner and more desperate as she confronts the just demands of her clamorous outcasts?”